One of six Broward Sheriff`s Office ``resource officers`` placed full time in the schools, Dinkel is still eating in the cafeteria, though. He`s not willing to pass up the opportunity for interaction with students and informal chats over lunch trays.

``I`ve got a little group that likes to eat lunch with me every day now,`` said Dinkel, who`s resorted to eating salads since his uniform got tight.

Principals at all six middle schools participating in the pilot program rave about their deputies and the efforts they take to relate with students in positive ways.

Explained Tammy Habersham, an eighth-grader at Everglades Middle School: ``It`s one of the greatest things that has happened to us.``

A recent update on the 3-month-old program shows the six deputies have held some 226 walk-in counseling sessions with students, 21 conferences with parents, made 76 classroom presentations, picked up 77 truants and turned away 21 trespassers on school grounds. Also since the program began, 16 student arrests have been made, including one on felony strong-arm robbery charges.

Making arrests is not the focus of the program, however. The deputies are primarily interested in developing positive relationships with students.

New River Middle School Principal Robert Howell described the deputy in his school, Scott McDaniel, as ``really more of a friend, though he can be an authority figure if need be.``

``The best thing that he does is make himself available to the kids in the morning and during lunch hour,`` Howell said.

Lauderdale Lakes Middle School Principal Jerutha Ford said the real value in the program is that students get to see the officers as human beings in an everyday setting.

``They love him,`` she said of Deputy Steve Spicer. ``Every time the bell rings he`s on the floor (in the hallways.) He`s able to touch bases with kids who are good and who might never have contact with him in a negative way.``

The middle schools in the pilot program -- which also include Crystal Lake and Lauderhill -- are not the only schools in the county to have full-time officers assigned to their facilities.

Some principals use their schools` discretionary funds to hire off-duty officers to watch over school grounds. The city police departments of Plantation and Coral Springs sponsor their own programs to have full-time officers in the schools. Fort Lauderdale soon will begin adding specific schools to the beats of its detectives.

The Sheriff`s Office program, however, is unusual because it consists of a partnership between the school system and the law enforcement agency.

School Board member Marie Harrington, who suggested the program, said she`s very pleased with the way things are turning out with the resource officers.

``In fact,`` Harrington said, ``there are several principals in the county who have requested them.``

Board members said they most likely will be discussing the expansion of the program to other middle schools in coming months.